Hard to believe that sweet guy playing that alien guy is now a sweet guy playing a medical examiner named Dr. Ducky Mallard on "NCIS". He also played in "The Invisible Man" and "Sapphire&Steel", not to mention many movies, guest roles on tv, music, plays, computer games and even a book he wrote. He's almost 89!
Mind control. Not exactly a mind meld, but a good thing he wasn't a certain Vulcan who had Pa'nar Syndrome that could infect Cdr. T'Pol's brain, adrenal glands, and immune syndrome on "Enterprise". Spock could also mind- meld and planted ideas in people's heads on "TOS".
In the first season Dominic Frontiere was the music director. The second season's music was by Harry Lubin, who played music that sounded like a homage or ripoff of "One Step Beyond." Well, I looked up some episodes of "One Step Beyond" and saw Harry Lubin in the music credits. So it wasn't a ripoff, it was the same guy!
The narrator says that this series holds up and is still 'watchable". Is he kidding? Some of the best episodes of this series (and there are many -especially in the first season) blow away many standard TV shows today. The unique combination of gothic horror and science fiction, the masterful cinematography and lighting, the powerful and atmospheric music, and especially the literary and allegorical stories and scripts make the Outer Limits one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
I totally agree. As a kid I watched the series, we all did to prove to our peers that we weren't sacred out of our wits, yet when I watch episodes such as this now, it still sends shivers up my spine. The concepts were brilliantly enacted and many of the special effects were far more effective than some of the clearly fake, cartoon like, CGI of today.
@@paulmicheldenverco1- The effects were quite good for television at that period. Only movies could surpass them (if the budget allowed). The rest comes down to the unspoken deal between the audience and the producers: you don't notice the bits filmed on backlots and soundstages, and they try (more or less) to ensure the illusion. Technological improvements have changed the details of that deal, but we still pretend that the characters haven't been recorded on location and at the studio. A good story helps immensely. And then you watch it decades later and you notice which bits were recorded where....
"The Sixth Finger" is one of my favorite OL episodes. I love the wordless acting where, after Cathy has brought Gwyllm back, they face each other and a tear glistens on her cheek. He touches the tear, it adheres to his fingertip, he looks at it, and realizes (without a word of dialogue being spoken) just what it means to be human. No longer animals, but not yet gods, either. All we can do is love each other. Her love brings him back to the realm of the human.
In this world of digital everything. You can now truly appreciate what the "Outer Limits" crew were able to create. Outstanding! A true American treasure.
Yes, they needed real imagination to create the special effects, enhanced by the incredible black and white film noir cinematography. Today, they simply use a multi-million dollar computer set-up in full color along with a lot of hyper-loud explosive noises to take all the imagination, allusion, and suggestion out of it, justifying the movie's ten-figure budget.
Looking at all the creatures from this show, I can't help but think what they would have been able to accomplish, if they had programs like Maya, Zbrush or even Blender - what else they would have been able to do back in those days! The creatures created for this show are so amazing and unique, major kudos to the production crew, and the story writers, one of the best sci-fi series of my lifetime!
I have to tell you a story related to this. After this episode aired, one of my uncle's friends (Eugene) did a very good job of recreating the make-up for Halloween. We were all over my grandmother's apartment in Newark NJ. The apartment had 2 doors to the hallway, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. One set of trick or treaters knocked on the kitchen door and we had Eugene answer the door. They took one look at him, screamed and ran down the hall. He closed the door and a moment later we heard a knock on the other door. Of course Eugene answered that door too. They screamed all the way down the stairs from the 4th floor to the street. :) 🤣🤣🤣
The 5-minute sequence where an artificially evolved Gwyllm plays a complex Bach concerto is superb. Lends an authentic touch, considering that David McCallum was an accomplished pianist before becoming an actor. The original script of "The Sixth Finger" had a lot of graphically violent scenes deleted from it. For example, where Gwyllm uses his mental powers to vaporize the mining boss, or kills the two motorcycle police. 🙀😱 TOL wasn't excessively violent for its time, but it did have a moral of the story ending with each episode. These were cautionary tales that made you think. 🤓🤔
My favorite is "The Galaxy Being" episode. It scared the heck out of me as a kid in the late 60's. It looked to me that the space monster had come out of the scientist's TV. Terrifying!!!
The Outer Limits scared me to death as an 11 year old. The Galaxy Being set the tone for the series and it just kept getting better and scarier I loved some of the avant garde shows,interesting photography, plot lines and first rate actors made this a wonderful sci fi series.
My Mom had other shows that she wanted to watch, but when I went to my Grandma's house she'd let me watch it and this episode stands out in my mind. We had trading cards with all the monsters from the horror shows back then. When I saw this I was sure that Kathy was Kelly Ripa.
Nothing today could put a candle to The Outer Limits. The acting, the plots, storyline, a who's who of well known actors getting their start, and especially the music. I was 6 and 7 years old when this came out and it scared me shitless. But I had to keep watching
The Outer Limits is still the greatest science fiction show ever put on network television. The remakes in the '80s were almost insulting. Despite the low budgets, they had great writers, stories and you can't forget the superb Dominic Frontiere music scores for the first season (Harry Lubin's 2nd season was much inferior). I still watch these originals on DVD every August.
You're so right about the 80s version. The Outer Limits was groundbreaking and totally original since tv was still young and the field was wide open. Nowadays they rely too much on special effects and they lose the story line.
I had a vivid childhood dream of standing in the kitchen looking through the doorway into the dining room where there was a TV. On the screen showed an alien creature something like a porcupine. It was moving from left to right through strange terrain. Sci-fi music was playing. Suddenly it turned and came straight out of the screen across the floor into the kitchen and it had a magnetic property, like a force field which paralyzed me and pulled me down over it so that it's spines were against my stomach. They seemed to have an electrical property and I was being electrocuted. Not exactly electrocution but a strange sensation. I woke up and my stomach was growling. I was very hungry.
My favorite episode bar none. The writers nailed it when it comes to how intellect effects a human and how they act and react. Just as Willam is about to destroy the police, he evolves past anger, which is absolute genius on the writers part.
However the road to private intellect made him regard life of his lessers worthless and dangerous to him...just him. His existence and continued growth was the ultimate good in his intellectual mind. It is only wishful thinking that indicates intellect alone can bring a person past violence....and wishful thinking is one of the core logical fallacies. A line of reasoning can not be logically valid unless the form is valid. Most Si Fi Fantasy is written by romantics....and many a scientist is just one lab accident away from being a supervillian.
Agreed. This episode with McCallum was top shelf. It was directed by James Goldstone who also directed the pilot for Star Trek: TOS “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and Season One’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
Back then as a 7-year old, "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone" were among my favorite television shows. Wah Chang's creation in "The Keeper of the Purple Twilight" was to me, the epitome of what a bipedal alien would look like.
We had the Outer Limits cards and the alien hit squad in "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" always stood out in my mind. Definitely in the top 5 episodes. "Demon With A Glass Hand" is my #1.
Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano hated the "monster" gimmick and did everything they could to get around it. Probably the show's best story, The Inheritors, had nothing that could even remotely be called a monster. The Sixth Finger was an outstanding and startlingly intelligent episode, although the staging was sometimes crude by modern standards. I'm surprised that writer Ellis St. Joseph didn't go on to do many great things in his career. David McCallum was marvelous, and I was quite taken by Jill Haworth, who was only 18 at the tine. Television could have done much more with her.
William Dozier allegedly told Ellis St. Joseph he'd written the "best" episode ever of BATMAN... the one with The Sandman. But between that moment and filming, so many things went crazy behind-the-scenes, I think St. Joseph may have asked to have his name taken off it. (I blame story editor Charles Hoffman to a degree-- he was that show's worst writer, and in seasons 2-3, he sabotaged everyone else's scripts.)
@@billkazen4683 The Zanti Misfits WERE REALLY scary but, I'd almost be willing to bet they were created by Rankin-Bass. They look and act exactly like their other puppets; Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc.. I don't know if these are all over the country but, where I am, if I'm on the highway or turnpike, every so often, there's be this pointy round building 2 or 3 stories high right next to the road that looks exactly like the Zanti space ship!
Haworth has a brief, innocuous nude scene in the Golem horror movie, IT! (1967), starring an unhinged Roddy McDowall. Haworth aside, the movie is worth a look for its sheer weirdness, including a nod to Psycho and concluding with a nuclear detonation. I saw it at the drive-in and still haven't recovered. Haworth hated the movie.
There were many fine episodes of The Outer Limits. The first episode, The Galaxy Being, starred Cliff Robertson who was a brilliant actor. My favorite, by far, was the 2 part story entitled The Inheritors. It had top-notch actors and a fantastic story. The directors of the show had a way of working with the actors, cameramen, etc to create some enduring episodes. Great show.. The low budget for special effects was no problem. In the episode Demon with a glass hand, the invaders from the future wore shower caps, lots of make up and cheap fake gold medallions. They were plenty creepy and believable!
@@garyoldham4449 Without a doubt, at that time anyone who watched has a few goose bumps or hair raising moments. Outer limits there simply was nothing like it at the time.. and still holds its own even to this day.
I purchased all the original Outer Limits soundtrack CDs... they invoke the fear and creepiness all on their own - Dominic Frontiere et al. were AMAZING! (Best used to scare unwanted stragglers from your house parties... ;-)
By coincidence I watched this for the first time last week. It was on a most excellent channel called Talking Pictures which shows old programmes. I missed the opening scene, but loved it so read up on it. It had an unusual collection of accents. It was meant to be set in a Welsh village, but there was a strong Yorkshire accent, maybe a Lancashire one, and others.
David McCallum's character looks suspiciously like a Talosian in the pilot of the original Star Trek series, "The Cage" The ability to read minds and perform telekinesis were also features of the Talosians in Star Trek as well. Is this where they drew inspiration from, or just a case of recycling?
This show scared me too much growing up, but now it's in my collection and I love it. Every single episode is a compelling human drama, usually with great characters (and actors), an interesting premise, a frightening "bear" of the week, and themes that are still relevant today. Some of my favorites include: yes, The Sixth Finger, The Man Who Was Never Born, Nightmare, The Zanti Misfits, The Bellero Shield, Specimen: Unknown, A Feasibility Study, Demon With a Glass Hand, and I, Robot.
This is one of my all-time favorite shows, and this is one of my favorite episodes. I watched this show like crazy when I was a boy. So many episodes scared the crap out of me. The part of this episode at the end where Willam was reverted back to a caveman and where his face began to expand really scared me!
Almost all of the episodes of this sci-fi series blow away current shows. The creativity, the music, the format, the pacing, and Vic Perrin's great intro and outro pieces make this a super-classic of TV.
I think the fact it's produced in black and white adds to it's appeal as well , It came on at 11:00 pm followed by Don Kirshner's Rock Concert at mid - night Cheers
This was the episode that got me my first major scar. Original airing (yeah, I'm old). Mom sends me to 'the basement,' the dark void from which no child returns, during the show to get freshly laundered and dried bedding for my siblings. Of course, I know OL is on, so I stall. Standing behind the couch watching as David transforms. Mom yells. I take off for 'the void,' switching on ALL the lights as I go to keep the alien monsters at bay. I grab the bedding right out of the dryer, bundle them up so I have a free hand to hit the lights as I retreat and head at a run for the stairs (big old century home). I yell "I'm coming!" but get stuck behind the couch watching just as, fully transformed, David comes from around the corner and we see him! Mom yells. I freak. Turn to run... ...and go forehead first into the edge of her Singer sewing machine console. WHAM! Right in the eyebrow! Blood everywhere! All over the sheets! 12 stitches. :D Totally worth it.
@@geezermann7865 Basement? We dreamed of having our own basement!. We had to hang our wet clothes in the backyard without any clothespins! -Thank's Monty Python-
The Outer Limits was a singularly special sci-fi series because of how many episodes were attempted to be pre-empted by local TV stations. They were all mostly great, but my favorite had to be the pilot "The Galaxy Being". It incorporated the usual contact with an alien being, but also the strange creepiness of radio technology back then, the usual amount of unnecessary destruction, and wrapped it all up with a philosophical message from beyond the stars. "You must explore; you must reach out..." 'What will you do?" "Reduce transmission energy. Reduce man." "You'll die." "There is no death for me...end of transmission..."
The Outer Limits is the best science fiction show ever made and The Sixth Finger is great. I've been a fan since the early sixties and I'm now lucky enough to have the series on DVD. I liked how the lab assistant said "your ignorance makes me angry and ill", funny how correct that line is now in this present world enviroment. My all time favorite is "A Feasibility Study" from 1964, I was scared and intrigued at the same time. Thanks for all your work on the cool shows from the good ol' days, there's always something great to find out about these shows...my shows.
Yeah, I always got it backwards too, "your ignorance makes me angry and ill" seems better than the other way around, as in the episode. I was a nerd in High School in L.A. area in sixties, and we, my other nerd friends and I, would taut each other with that line, cuz well, we were nerds, and that's what nerd's do!! Thinking we were smarter than the other nerds! We were angry all the time too, cuz we had no girlfriends to get us off, and that made us very ill as well!! :D LOL
As a child, the show's opening alone scared the hell out of me! The episode that particularly scared me presented this scenario: For those who remember when TV signals were received strictly via an antenna, there were times when you just had a screen full of static. When you were tuning in the signal you would get a ghost outline of human figures that would become more pronounced and turn into recognizable people as the picture cleared. In this episode, that ghostlike static figure stepped out of the TV screen and was walking around amongst us! I still get the chills just thing about it.
That's "The Galaxy Being," the first episode. It scared the crap out of me! I was 8, or maybe 7. Your imagination filled in the details when the TV static blurred the picture beyond recognition. It might've done a better job, too!
Also, "The Demon With A Glass Hand," with Robert Culp. For some reason, I think that was written by Harlan Ellison, but I find no proof. I know he wrote the Star Trek story "The City On The Edge Of Forever."
I was 9 years old and saw this episode when this was first shown on TV. I liked The Sixth Finger but my favorites (in no particular order) were 1) A Feasibility Study 2) Fun and Games and 3) A Second Chance. I still watch them. I also liked the Architects of Fear as we were one year removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis. And I really liked Nightmare. The Outer Limits, especially the first season, used to evoke such fear and wonder in me. I used to love the Monster of the Week in the newspaper. Now, I enjoy what the stories say about the human condition.
@@sevenstarsofthedipper1047 Precisely. All drama, in the end, is human drama. The trappings of science fiction present another stage to enact it, but the story is compelling only to the degree you care about the characters and their dilemmas.
"The Terminator" seems to have been copied off that episode, along with "Soldier" from The Outer Limits. The Terminator also seems to be definitely copied from "In His Image" from The Twilight Zone, "The War Machines" story from Doctor Who, and the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
I was fortunate to have been around when this show first came out and in the early days of Television where stories were more character driven and despite the limited budgets the programming was engaging and entertaining. I can't relate to anything made today. I find it crude and lacking in story telling and morals. My favorite Outer Limits was a two part episode called The Inheritors. It always brings a tear to my eye despite the funky looking starship.
To this science-fiction loving kid, every episode was pure gold. "The Mutant" and "The Zanti Misfits" gave me nightmares like you wouldn't believe. Had a complete set of Outer Limits trading cards. Wish I still had those and my "Mars Attacks" cards. I believe you can get inexpensive reprints now, I think I'll do that.
I grew up on "Outer Limits" and "Twilight Zone." Might explain a lot about my later life . . hmm. Yup. . .The Zanti Misfits definitely freaked me out. The episode with Patrick Oneal and the miniature planet under the glass. That dark batlike thing that came out of the planet was, for some reason, THE scariest thing I ever encountered on Outer Limits. So many great episodes. My favorite was the one with Robert Culp as the android with the glass hand.
I saw some Twilight Zones (old) as an adult and you talk about existential horror.... these shows had them. People today would not see these fearsome aspects and this was over 50 years ago.
The people who post comments concerning "The Outer Limits" were all kids when it was first shown - like me - and inevitably remember being petrified with fear over one episode or another. For me, it was the one where Robert Culp was turned into a faux alien, and as he was dying in the lab at the end, he fell to the floor suddenly in front of his wife, who was able to recognize him because of how he touched her face with his finger. The alien make-up was scary, but it was more unsettling to me that he willingly and knowingly submitted to the surgery and permanent physical alterations while keeping the change secret from his wife.
That episode was "The Architects of Fear," and it's my most memorable episode too. I was only six when it first aired, and it scared the hell out of me. I 've read that the network worried that the alien was "too frightening for young children," and that some affiliates actually blacked out the screen when the alien was being shown. Scary as it was, I loved The Outer Limits when it first ran. But it wasn't until I saw it in syndication when I was older that I really started appreciating how good many of the stories and the acting were.
The love that guy had for his family combined with his self-sacrifice for the sake of world peace, brought tears to my eyes. Remember they first experimented on a monkey. Turning it into a alien looking creature drove it insane!
This is why I had posted previously that most of the episodes were actually love stories; The Architects of Fear is the perfect example, and the episode I was referring to, when I posted that.
"The whole town must be utterly destroyed. An example must be made." Anytime I hear something stupid on the news, i walk up to a window, look out, and speak this line. Sometimes with coffee, sometimes with alcohol. It is mine to know which and when.
"Your ignorance makes me ill and angry." Such a great line!!!! Definitely in my top five favorite OL episodes along with The Bellaro Shield, It Crawled Out of the Woodworks, Don't Open Till Doomsday and Production and Decay of Strange Particles (which scared the crap out of me when I was a kid) Runner up: O.B.I.T.
I'd say the top five is 1."The Man Who Was Never Born" also with Martin Landau from the Bellero Shield - both had heavily dramatic overtones y Landau. And Gerd Oswald directed film with David McCallum 2. "Forms of Things Unknown. And the two parter 3. "The Inheritors" and 4. The Mutant (with Warren Oates). 5. Second Chance (with Simon Oakland and Mimsy Farmer, Don Gordon) - great entertainment. Scary and in many cases, ominous.
@@SuperOmnicronsj44 There's so many good episode. FoTU is another one that creeped me out as a kid, and it was all atmosphere! Some more I need to add to my absolute favorites list: The Borderland and The Invisibles, which still gives me chills to this day 😃
@@maskedmarvyl4774 - Potentially Very Deadly Thinking, Plotting And Planning Machines, Which Are Always Watching Us, And Listening To Us . . . Ouch . . .
Outer Limits was the finest sci-fi/horror series of all time. Bar none. Sorry, T. Zone.... And they still hold up even better than when they first aired, in my opinion...
That's like comparing apples and oranges! Outer limits was sci-fi where as Twilight Zone was more of the paranormal? T.Z. also went on to have a spin-off called The Night Gallery in the mid 70's and it held up to Rod Serlings standards of suspenseful entertainment...
@@derlingerardclair6252 I believe in separating the performer from their work, since so many creative people are dicks. In the case of Bill Cosby it's difficult since he was the so much of the act. But I don't believe in burning books if the author was awful.
Between twilight zone,outer limits and alfred Hitchcock series in the 60's wonder we didn't have nightmares. Scariest episode was Hitchcock. Show HD Edd Byrens as a prisoner make deal with prison cemetery caretaker to escape. He was to climb into coffin with corpse be buried and then caretaker would dig him up. All goes to plan till Edd keeps wondering why it's taken so long to dig him up. Edd lights match after match cursing where that old caretaker was. Of course the sheet comes off body...it's the caretaker himself dead in coffin with him
This episode was one of my favorites of this series, I remember seeing the TV trailers for the first Episode "The Galaxy Being" staring Cliff Robertson and looked forward to seeing it. When it premiered I was absolutely enthralled with the intro and the control voice - but still remember how terrified I was when I saw the whole episode (I was 9 hears old). Among my favorites was "O.B.I.T", "The Inheritors", "Feasibility Study", "Second Chance, and "The Man Who Never Was Born".
This is my favorite episode of Outer Limits. Bar none.. hands down. The line "Your ignorance makes me ill and angry" has always stuck with me and I have actually used it. Thank you for bringing this to me today. 🌹
I felt that way when I looked at the comments to my posts back when I used to have a Twitter account. life is so much more pleasant without Twitter. I hope Elon Musk sells his stock, tanks the company and wipes it from the face of the Earth!
Yes this was an outstanding episode. The script and dialogue was excellent. Too many favorites to list, but Architects of Fear, A Feasibility Study and Nightmare are some favorites.
McCallum was also in the last episode of the first season with Sir Cedric Hardwick in a beautiful piece of dark, Gothic fantasy. This was also a pilot for a series unsold. Both McCallum episodes are excellent.
@@RedVynil The OP is correct, last episode of the 1st season. "The Forms of Things Unknown" script borrows unashamedly from the film "Diabolique" (1955).
Yes, one of my favorites. Others are: "The Architects of Fear", "Demon with a Glass Hand", "Corpus Earthling", "O.B.I.T.", "Nightmare", "The Belero Shield", and "The Forms of Things Unknown".
It's also one of my favorites. One thing that's interesting is how the narrative subtly jumps from the older brother to the younger brother and his new girlfriend and then to the detective.
The Energy Monster was the chaos factor in Forbidden Planet 7 or 8 years earlier. Jonny Quest also had The Invisible Monster made of energy from an experiment in 1964. There was a UK movie with an energy monster in the very early 60s....and The Avengers had one in the Rigg years.
Many people don't know that the detective in this episode was none other than Ed Asner, who would go on to play Lou Grant in the Mary Tyler Moore show!!!! 👍
@@Mary...22-u9j when I look back on it now, it really was. We had a good time we could go out and play we could be away from the house for hours on end and your parents never worried about you. People actually got along much better then than they do now in spite of everything
I loved that show at age 11 in 1963. For some reason It was shown at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. I would get up super early to watch it and other Sci-Fi shows. Now all the Sci-Fi /Horror shows are just blood and guts ,the gorier the better they think. THESE made you think and imagine.
Censorship can be both blessing and curse. When you can't shove things into people's faces, you have to hint and suggest and use creativity. No hiding plot holes behind a torrent of blood and guts. (In his commentary to _Hellraiser,_ Clive Barker said that the censors' suggestions made certain scenes _more_ effective. I doubt that was the intent, but here's to happy accidents.)
@@josepherhardt164- It's heavily associated with black & white filmmaking, which the best directors used to full advantage. By the time color became common, noir as a genre was not as popular. Nowadays, few seem to know how to use color at all, which is why the same few overall hues are used and the no-talent mistake creative uses of color for something they _should_ do. Can you imagine _Lawrence of Arabia_ made today? It would look as though they put a yellow filter over every camera lens.
@@julietfischer5056 Speaking of filters over camera lenses, have you ever seen _The Angry Red Planet_ ? It's amazing what you can do in nine days with $200,000 (reputedly!) . :) I also think this 1959 masterpiece (cough) is here on TH-cam.
There have been a few series over the years with vague similarities, twilight zone, quantum leap, x-files, black mirror, etc. Early HG Wells films were all cautionary tales and moral choice.
Happy to say I saw the costume in person when meeting Forrest J. Ackerman in the late 90s. He had it in his home, along with about a million other artifacts from film and TV.
You did a great review. For me probably my favourite from the original series was, “The Inheritors” part one & part two. It showed the pettiness of mankind sometimes. And perhaps the super goodness of an Alien Race we have not met yet.
Culp was one of my favorite actors, who had a few good roles in movies, but seemed doomed to be a TV-type of actor...I am biased here, as he was a University of Washington graduate--my school too!
But he does play the oboe - lots harder than piano. Also, both his parents were musicians, so he would have known a lot more than the average actor. His parents were worried about his ability to make a living when he switched from being a musician to being an actor.
Perhaps he meant that he didn't play the piano previous to this episode. But taught himself to play for this episode for the sake of authenticity. And perhaps he went on to be proficient.
Actually David`s father was an accomplished viola player in an orchestra. One night he asked Jimmy Page if he wanted to try a viola bow on his guitar. Page liked it so much he began using in some of his sets and then used it later on in Led Zep.
"The Zanti Misfits" was the one that scared the heck out of me. "Soldier", "Do Not Open Til Doomsday" and "The Bellero Sheild" also stand out as personal favs for me
Every episode of the Outer Limits used to scare the crap out of me as a kid. I'd start trembling as soon as the "control voice" did the opening lines. It would take all week for me to get over the episode, and I'd come back for more the next week!
"Do Not Open Till Doomsday" was creepy , but "The Architects of Fear" really bothered me. The horific results of the transformation and the poor guy's wife when she meets the "alien" stuck with me for years.
McCallum was also in the episode "Forms of Things Unknown" which is a great episode and one of my favorites. Also probably one of the weirdest Outer Limits episodes.
@@55Quirll I would have loved to discuss "Demon With a Glass Hand" with Robert Culp," given that we now have flash drives that are analogous to the fingers of the hand, but now he is playing engagements far from here. Next in line for discussion would be Harlan Ellison, who wrote that story, but he passed away not long ago.
@@wdd3141 I agree, that episode was very far ahead of it's time in items we take for granted today. The special effects may have been cheesey but I loved the episode.
"Demon with a Glass Hand" was also one of my favorites, written by Harlan Ellison. I think that episode could be updated to today's standard as would be "the 6th finger" I did watch this version modernized by the reboot of the Outer Limits, but this version tapped into a more visceral fear of how we could see ourselves in the future without community, how would such an evolve person ever exist and feel belonging?
That was one of my favorites, and keeper of the purple twilight or something like that. Didn't know about the jellyfish thing that sounds very interesting spectacular research
I never missed Outer Limits; it was a TV program way ahead of its time. This episode was one of my favorites, along with the Robert Culp episode where his character is a robot who must wait for a future date 200 years away, as he has the entire population of future Earth converted to a digital signal on a wire in his robot hand. Thanks for sharing this.
Robert Culp and Harlan Ellison wanted to make "Demon with a Glass Hand" into a feature, with Mr. Culp directing, but they could never find the financing. It was indeed a superior episode.
"Demon...." is a great episode. Top notch. Somebody botched the calculations for half lives of the radioactive plague used to destroy the Kyban. 99 year half life is not 200 years from total decay : 50% first 99 years, 50% of THAT second 99 years (now 75% decay 25% active) third 99 years, 87-1/2, 12-1/2 ... you get it. So in addition to the 1000 year delay, Trent (Culp) must wait another 700 years for activity under 2%. Even that may be fatal to all, we don't know...
The episode that really scared me was "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork." My dad had a shop vacuum just like the one in the episode. It was months before I would go anywhere near that thing again. (Hey, I was eight years old.)
When I was kid, this show and the Twilight Zone would put the scare into me. The Outer Limits opening monologue really told me some scary shit was in store! Thanks for sharing.
I loved both. Twilight Zone interspersed some scarier episodes with many more light-hearted and moralistic episodes, while Outer Limits was relentlessly scary. If I had to compare Twilight Zone to the Outer Limits, I'd say it's like comparing the milder Beatles to forever bad-boy Rolling Stones.
Anyone remember the show WAY OUT? Roald Dahl was host. The show didn’t last long just a few episodes. But it was shot on tape rather than film. That made it even more frightening.
I loved the Outer Limits as a kid. My parents would only let me watch it begrudgingly - as there was only 1 TV in the house (a 19" B&W Zenith) and they didn't always want to watch it themselves. Also, I was prone to nightmares and sleepwalking in those days, and they didn't want to have to deal with me waking up and screaming in the middle of the night. But I could rarely understand The Twilight Zone in those days - I think it required a more mature mind. The Outer Limits was a more "in-your-face" monster show which was definitely scarier. My favorite episode was the one where there were aliens that looked like rocks, but could morph into killer molten lava things :) For some reason that really resonated with my grammar school brain. Thanks for this episode. I appreciate your work.
Sadly, David McCallum died yesterday at age 90. He was a gifted man whose intelligence always shined through in roles he played. I think this may be my favorite Outer Limits episode. It gives hope that perhaps sometime in the future, humans may outgrow their animal impulses and become compassionate, wise beings - just as Willem became at his most advanced stage. One can only hope our species and the planet, last long enough for this to happen.
I really wish Science-Fiction writers would learn how evolution actually works. If his evolution had really been "accelerated" then he would have evolved to fit into his environment, meaning that little room... not growing more intelligent and psychic. Evolution doesn't mean improvement, it just means adaptation to better fit habitat. But most importantly: _individuals cannot evolve._ That is something that far too many sci-fi writers never seem to understand.
The one episode that freaked me out .. and became my favorite also.. is the Zanti Misfits episode. I got used to how bizarre they looked but the high pitch voice that talked in english was offset with the harsh insect buzzing noises they made as they crawled around, that still kinda haunts me as an adult.
Yeah that episode freaked me out, especially that scene where the misfits are crawling all over the walls and one guy is screaming.....aaahhhhh get 'em off me....aaaahhhhh
The Zanti Misfits scared the living daylights out of me when I was seven. I used to turn the dial when "the bear"(i.e. monster) would make its first appearance. .As I got older, I used to watch full episodes and ask myself: what did the alien/monster/mutant symbolize? What was the social issue being commented upon in the story? A minimum of special effects and first-class scripts were what kept this series going.
I have a distinct memory of watching one of these shows, probably Outer Limits or Twilight Zone, in the late 1960s in reruns that had a sequence where a man was run through accelerated evolution by a machine and at one stage was left as a jellyfish, before being brought back to an ordinary man again. That image of a lump of jelly sitting inside the chamber of the machine is quite distinct. I remember it well. Which means that there is a possibility that this episode (The Sixth Finger) was released with two different endings, or that a very similar episode of another show (basically a rip-off) was made and broadcast at some point. Does anyone else remember such an episode?
@@darkwolf-22 - Really? I always thought The Man Who Was Never Born was pretty much The Terminator (Martin Landau goes back in time to kill the man who pretty much destroyed the Earth).
Loved the Outer Limits when I was a kid. One of my favorites was when the X-15 went faster than time and the pilot gets out to a worlds that appears frozen in time.
I was too young to watch it when it first aired here in Australia. By the time I was, in the late 60s it had disappeared from the air waves. In the late 70 and early 80s a few smaller cinemas would have Saturday afternoon showing a couple of episodes back to back. And they always sold out for some reason. It wasn't until the DVDs were released that I got to see both seasons. Lot's of great episodes like "The Demon With the glass Hand"; but my favourite would be its only 2 parter, "The Inheritors".
I vividly remember this excellent episode, particularly Stefano's addition, when McCallum rips through a Bach piece, and then says, "These hands have never before touched the keys of a piano." I once met Cliff Robertson and we talked for about half an hour, and I mentioned "Galaxy Being," which he remembered warmly. My favorite Outer Limits of all time though is Robert Culp in "The Demon With the Glass Hand." That was an outstanding screenplay.
@@KutWrite Hey, you're right, there is a parallel between those two screenplays, isn't there? As you probably know, "Charly" was based on a beautiful short story, "Flowers For Algernon." Cliff Robertson was living example of the old saying, "The bigger they are, the nicer they are." It was neat running into him because I had worked in the theater biz-25 years as a projectionist, etc.,-and we had a fascinating conversation I won't bore you with, but I'd run into him in La Jolla, where I lived then, and where he'd grown up. He was in the process of selling his home in town. I said we locals wished he would stick around, and he told me, "you know, Joe, I used to deliver papers to that house when I was a kid." That is pure Cliff Robertson right there.
@@TheRealDrJoey Yes. I have friends in LaJolla and heard nice stories about Cliff. I accidentally got onto the drive of his hilltop house. Got to the gate and had trouble turning my cafe-racer motorcycle around & tipped it over. First and only scratches on that beautiful fairing :((( . But I never sighted Cliff myself.
@@KutWrite He was in 70-some pictures, and ALL the TV work he did was just superlative. He told me a little about Natalie Wood dying toward the end of production on "Brainstorm," and I kidded him about his character in "Way of the Wind," and asked him if that was supposed to be Ted Turner in his dotage. I got a great laugh out of Cliff Robertson with that, and then he said, "I know Ted Turner, and he's a lot crazier than that character." Then he actually took the time to tell me a cool anecdote about how the director came to him the day of shooting and asked him if he wouldn't mind nuancing the character, and learning some lines he had written the night before. "I don't care what I'm supposed to say!" he tells me, " They're paying me to be there, right?" He was a lovely guy, from a time gone by now, sad to say. But it's nice thinking that the film record will endure.
Watched Outer Limits and never got tired of the sound FX. Totally molded my imagination along with Twilight Zone, Thriller, One step beyond, Chiller and many others. Outer Limits was the most Sci Fi, actually gave me dreams.
I grew up with all the shows you mentioned, Including Star Trek. They are what shaped my appreciation for Science Fiction. I even became a huge science fiction book reader. To this day, Science Fiction, is my preference for books, movies and TV. I think I was drawn to the genre -- and still am -- because it is fiction, and not limited to reality. You can take the story in any direction and your only limit is your imagination.
@@reesaserik3759 The same with me, I got into the classic sci fi books, Stranger in a Strange Land, 1984, The Foundation Trilogy, Brave New World, Dune, Slaughter House 5. The Man who was never Born is another great episode on Outer Limits. I don't read Sci Books so much anymore but I'm richer for reading those I mentioned.
@@recycology5468 Reading is a habit that sometimes gets lost as you develop new habits. There is only so much time in a day and there are so many things now to draw our attention. When I was young, no cell phones, no computers, no games -- video or other electronic type. Games were board games, deck of cards, dice, and such. You only had 3 channels on the TV -- if you were lucky to have three, and the TV went off the air after midnight. National Anthem played, then the station emblem showed, then static until morning. So if you were a night owl and stayed up -- you read while everyone else slept. As an adult I do not read as much either because my attentions are divided between arts and crafts. Needlework; sewing; drawing/painting; woodworking; carving; resin casting. Yep, only so much time in a day. Those books you read, when younger, will stay with you for the rest of your life. Some people never read any books at any age. They have no idea what they have missed. Good day to you and I hope you are happy.
The Outer Limits was the greatest science fiction series ever produced. Many people will instantly associate it with The Twilight Zone, but it wasn't. While I liked The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits was in a class by itself. It combined wonderful, imaginative plots with ambient music to create the ultimate experience on the small screen. The Sixth Finger, Nightmare, The Bellero Shield, The Galaxy Being, The Hundred Days of the Dragon, The Man Who Was Never Born, Demon with a Glass Hand, The Borderland, Second Chance, and The Inheritors were my favorite episodes. I can remember reruns on Saturday afternoons in the 1960's when I was young, and I have been a fan ever since. The Outer Limits: Official Companion is a must read for any fan of the series.
![ผัวเถื่อน - ยูริ โตเกียวมิวสิค [ OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P08ORRVDGl8/mqdefault.jpg)
The original Outer Limits was a great series. There was so much depth in these stories.
I especially loved the control voice before and after the episodes.
Hard to believe that sweet guy playing that alien guy is now a sweet guy playing a medical examiner named Dr. Ducky Mallard on "NCIS". He also played in "The Invisible Man" and "Sapphire&Steel", not to mention many movies, guest roles on tv, music, plays, computer games and even a book he wrote. He's almost 89!
Mind control. Not exactly a mind meld, but a good thing he wasn't a certain Vulcan who had Pa'nar Syndrome that could infect Cdr. T'Pol's brain, adrenal glands, and immune syndrome on "Enterprise". Spock could also mind- meld and planted ideas in people's heads on "TOS".
the twilight zone won the contest.
In the first season Dominic Frontiere was the music director. The second season's music was by Harry Lubin, who played music that sounded like a homage or ripoff of "One Step Beyond." Well, I looked up some episodes of "One Step Beyond" and saw Harry Lubin in the music credits. So it wasn't a ripoff, it was the same guy!
The narrator says that this series holds up and is still 'watchable". Is he kidding? Some of the best episodes of this series (and there are many -especially in the first season) blow away many standard TV shows today. The unique combination of gothic horror and science fiction, the masterful cinematography and lighting, the powerful and atmospheric music, and especially the literary and allegorical stories and scripts make the Outer Limits one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
I totally agree. As a kid I watched the series, we all did to prove to our peers that we weren't sacred out of our wits, yet when I watch episodes such as this now, it still sends shivers up my spine. The concepts were brilliantly enacted and many of the special effects were far more effective than some of the clearly fake, cartoon like, CGI of today.
I also watched it during its original run. It gave me the feeling that it was made in Europe, because it was so unlike anything seen on American TV.
Hear, hear!
Yes, because if it's good writing and acting you accept the less sophisticated special effects because it's the former two that are most important.
@@paulmicheldenverco1- The effects were quite good for television at that period. Only movies could surpass them (if the budget allowed). The rest comes down to the unspoken deal between the audience and the producers: you don't notice the bits filmed on backlots and soundstages, and they try (more or less) to ensure the illusion. Technological improvements have changed the details of that deal, but we still pretend that the characters haven't been recorded on location and at the studio. A good story helps immensely.
And then you watch it decades later and you notice which bits were recorded where....
"The Sixth Finger" is one of my favorite OL episodes. I love the wordless acting where, after Cathy has brought Gwyllm back, they face each other and a tear glistens on her cheek. He touches the tear, it adheres to his fingertip, he looks at it, and realizes (without a word of dialogue being spoken) just what it means to be human. No longer animals, but not yet gods, either. All we can do is love each other. Her love brings him back to the realm of the human.
Terry Pratchett said it best "Man is the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape"
Please listen to the The man who evolved...
Excellent observation.
@@cindydott452 Pan narrans.
I'd prefer to go forward...
"Your ignorance makes me ill and angry."
A line I lifted from this episode and used my whole life.
In this world of digital everything. You can now truly appreciate what the "Outer Limits" crew were able to create. Outstanding! A true American treasure.
Yes, they needed real imagination to create the special effects, enhanced by the incredible black and white film noir cinematography. Today, they simply use a multi-million dollar computer set-up in full color along with a lot of hyper-loud explosive noises to take all the imagination, allusion, and suggestion out of it, justifying the movie's ten-figure budget.
@@jody6851 The show's director of photography was Conrad Hall, who went onto become one of the best DP's in Hollywood
@@joestrike8537 No shit!! Wow!! Thanks so much for that factoid. I think he and Meredith Nicholson were the last great B & W cinematographers.
Looking at all the creatures from this show, I can't help but think what they would have been able to accomplish, if they had programs like Maya, Zbrush or even Blender - what else they would have been able to do back in those days!
The creatures created for this show are so amazing and unique, major kudos to the production crew, and the story writers, one of the best sci-fi series of my lifetime!
@@jody6851 So true. A lot of CGI today might be described as "...full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" - to quote Shakespeare.
Without question, this was my favorite episode of the Outer Limits. Saw it as a kid in the 60's. Always wanted to evolve like David McCallum.
Like this one and the other David McCallum one he is in "Forms of Things Unknown" but found the Man From Uncle
boring too much of the time.
I have to tell you a story related to this. After this episode aired, one of my uncle's friends (Eugene) did a very good job of recreating the make-up for Halloween. We were all over my grandmother's apartment in Newark NJ. The apartment had 2 doors to the hallway, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. One set of trick or treaters knocked on the kitchen door and we had Eugene answer the door. They took one look at him, screamed and ran down the hall. He closed the door and a moment later we heard a knock on the other door. Of course Eugene answered that door too. They screamed all the way down the stairs from the 4th floor to the street. :) 🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣 - would've loved to have been there for that !!!
*Epic!*
"...their IGNORANT FEAR, makes me laugh quite heartily..."
THAT'S how you do Hallowe'en.
Wow great 👍 story. Thank you 😊
The 5-minute sequence where an artificially evolved Gwyllm plays a complex Bach concerto is superb. Lends an authentic touch, considering that David McCallum was an accomplished pianist before becoming an actor.
The original script of "The Sixth Finger" had a lot of graphically violent scenes deleted from it. For example, where Gwyllm uses his mental powers to vaporize the mining boss, or kills the two motorcycle police. 🙀😱
TOL wasn't excessively violent for its time, but it did have a moral of the story ending with each episode.
These were cautionary tales that made you think. 🤓🤔
His primary instrument was the oboe, but yes, every respectable musician learns keyboard. His father was a concertmaster.
My favorite is "The Galaxy Being" episode. It scared the heck out of me as a kid in the late 60's. It looked to me that the space monster had come out of the scientist's TV. Terrifying!!!
Galaxy Being was the pilot for the series by the way.
Wasn't that the one that brought that thing around when the guy the guy turned up the power or the radio station?
@@bigbilltoady412 that's it! I had nightmares about that LOL...
What about the Zanti Misfits? That one gave me nightmares!
Excellent episode. Most of The Outer Limits episodes still hold up 60 years later.
"Your ignorance makes me ill, and angry." A line which I can use frequently these days.
I was a huge fan of the Outer Limits back in '63 as a freshman in High School.
The Outer Limits scared me to death as an 11 year old.
The Galaxy Being set the tone for the series and it just kept getting better and scarier
I loved some of the avant garde shows,interesting photography, plot lines and first rate actors made this a wonderful sci fi series.
Groundbreaking is an understatement.
I felt horrible for the being. "They must destroy me". Pretty stiff punishment for fooling around with the equipment.
I was about 7 at the time and I had many a nightmare after watching these shows. I don't regret a thing.
My Mom had other shows that she wanted to watch, but when I went to my Grandma's house she'd let me watch it and this episode stands out in my mind.
We had trading cards with all the monsters from the horror shows back then.
When I saw this I was sure that Kathy was Kelly Ripa.
@@bertkilborne6464
Marcus Welby, M.D. ? That was my mother's favorite.
Nothing today could put a candle to The Outer Limits. The acting, the plots, storyline, a who's who of well known actors getting their start, and especially the music. I was 6 and 7 years old when this came out and it scared me shitless. But I had to keep watching
The Outer Limits is still the greatest science fiction show ever put on network television. The remakes in the '80s were almost insulting. Despite the low budgets, they had great writers, stories and you can't forget the superb Dominic Frontiere music scores for the first season (Harry Lubin's 2nd season was much inferior). I still watch these originals on DVD every August.
You're so right about the 80s version. The Outer Limits was groundbreaking and totally original since tv was still young and the field was wide open. Nowadays they rely too much on special effects and they lose the story line.
I have the entire series on DVD... I'll NEVER have to WAIT to watch it again.
The only one I remember was a Outer Space monster came out of the screen in the Control Centre. Scared me to death at the age of 8 years old.
That was probably the pilot episode, "The Galaxy Being." The machinery was in a transmitter building for a radio station.
I had a vivid childhood dream of standing in the kitchen looking through the doorway into the dining room where there was a TV. On the screen showed an alien creature something like a porcupine. It was moving from left to right through strange terrain. Sci-fi music was playing. Suddenly it turned and came straight out of the screen across the floor into the kitchen and it had a magnetic property, like a force field which paralyzed me and pulled me down over it so that it's spines were against my stomach. They seemed to have an electrical property and I was being electrocuted. Not exactly electrocution but a strange sensation. I woke up and my stomach was growling. I was very hungry.
Too many OL episodes to name, but this is probably my favorite. The humanity of touching her tear before dying was so poignant~
My favorite episode bar none. The writers nailed it when it comes to how intellect effects a human and how they act and react. Just as Willam is about to destroy the police, he evolves past anger, which is absolute genius on the writers part.
Absolutely! The fact that he evolved beyond anger, drove home the storyline of the episode.
However the road to private intellect made him regard life of his lessers worthless and dangerous to him...just him. His existence and continued growth was the ultimate good in his intellectual mind.
It is only wishful thinking that indicates intellect alone can bring a person past violence....and wishful thinking is one of the core logical fallacies.
A line of reasoning can not be logically valid unless the form is valid.
Most Si Fi Fantasy is written by romantics....and many a scientist is just one lab accident away from being a supervillian.
Agreed. This episode with McCallum was top shelf. It was directed by James Goldstone who also directed the pilot for Star Trek: TOS “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and Season One’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
As a Kid in the 60's there was MUCH to be in awe of.. And Outer Limits had me transfixed to the tube for sure!!
This is definitely one of my favorite OL episodes. The one that really lodged in my brain as a child though was the Zanti Misfits. They were wild!
OMG! I had major nightmares about those creepy bugs and their faces. I developed a major phobia of bugs because of that episode.
@@cjeffygo I don't doubt it! Seeing those at 9 years old stayed with me for a LONG time.
Back then as a 7-year old, "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone" were among my favorite television shows. Wah Chang's creation in "The Keeper of the Purple Twilight" was to me, the epitome of what a bipedal alien would look like.
I found the episode. This explains a lot about former President Trump ....
@@veramae4098 Nazi
We had the Outer Limits cards and the alien hit squad in "Keeper of the Purple Twilight" always stood out in my mind. Definitely in the top 5 episodes. "Demon With A Glass Hand" is my #1.
@@veramae4098 TDS strikes again!
Amazing how much real estate he takes up in some people's minds.
@@veramae4098 You mean the guy who didn't cause out of control inflation and record high gas prices?
Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano hated the "monster" gimmick and did everything they could to get around it. Probably the show's best story, The Inheritors, had nothing that could even remotely be called a monster. The Sixth Finger was an outstanding and startlingly intelligent episode, although the staging was sometimes crude by modern standards. I'm surprised that writer Ellis St. Joseph didn't go on to do many great things in his career. David McCallum was marvelous, and I was quite taken by Jill Haworth, who was only 18 at the tine. Television could have done much more with her.
That was a very thought provoking episode....but those Zantee warriors scared me as a thirteen year old...still does; I have the DVD boxset.
William Dozier allegedly told Ellis St. Joseph he'd written the "best" episode ever of BATMAN... the one with The Sandman. But between that moment and filming, so many things went crazy behind-the-scenes, I think St. Joseph may have asked to have his name taken off it. (I blame story editor Charles Hoffman to a degree-- he was that show's worst writer, and in seasons 2-3, he sabotaged everyone else's scripts.)
@@billkazen4683 The Zanti Misfits WERE REALLY scary but, I'd almost be willing to bet they were created by Rankin-Bass. They look and act exactly like their other puppets; Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc..
I don't know if these are all over the country but, where I am, if I'm on the highway or turnpike, every so often, there's be this pointy round building 2 or 3 stories high right next to the road that looks exactly like the Zanti space ship!
Haworth has a brief, innocuous nude scene in the Golem horror movie, IT! (1967), starring an unhinged Roddy McDowall. Haworth aside, the movie is worth a look for its sheer weirdness, including a nod to Psycho and concluding with a nuclear detonation. I saw it at the drive-in and still haven't recovered. Haworth hated the movie.
Jill is a joy to the eyes!
There were many fine episodes of The Outer Limits. The first episode, The Galaxy Being, starred Cliff Robertson who was a brilliant actor. My favorite, by far, was the 2 part story entitled The Inheritors. It had top-notch actors and a fantastic story. The directors of the show had a way of working with the actors, cameramen, etc to create some enduring episodes. Great show.. The low budget for special effects was no problem. In the episode Demon with a glass hand, the invaders from the future wore shower caps, lots of make up and cheap fake gold medallions. They were plenty creepy and believable!
This show had the creepiest sound effects. Even the music was scary. I loved this show as a child, 50+ years ago...
All covertly designed to elicit the creepiness and scariness in you, for reasons beyond your previous understanding...
????
@@adamson5779
Admit it! Using the word "covertly" was deliberately used to elicit creepiness and scariness! Well done!
@@garyoldham4449 Without a doubt, at that time anyone who watched has a few goose bumps or hair raising moments. Outer limits there simply was nothing like it at the time.. and still holds its own even to this day.
I purchased all the original Outer Limits soundtrack CDs... they invoke the fear and creepiness all on their own - Dominic Frontiere et al. were AMAZING! (Best used to scare unwanted stragglers from your house parties... ;-)
One of the strongest Outer Limits episodes, due primarily to McCallum's excellent acting.
By coincidence I watched this for the first time last week. It was on a most excellent channel called Talking Pictures which shows old programmes. I missed the opening scene, but loved it so read up on it. It had an unusual collection of accents. It was meant to be set in a Welsh village, but there was a strong Yorkshire accent, maybe a Lancashire one, and others.
David McCallum's character looks suspiciously like a Talosian in the pilot of the original Star Trek series, "The Cage" The ability to read minds and perform telekinesis were also features of the Talosians in Star Trek as well. Is this where they drew inspiration from, or just a case of recycling?
Probably "Yes" and "Yes".
DAMNNNN!
You're absolutly RIGHT!
WOW!
The Outer Limits was before Star Trek. This episode was from 1963.
Star Trek's creator was Donald Bellisario,if Im not mistaken. Either he was that or the chief screenplay writer.
@@toddtiberius I think that's what he's saying.
This is one of my top three episodes: Demon with the glass hand, The Inheritors (two part episode), and this episode The Sixth finger.
This show scared me too much growing up, but now it's in my collection and I love it. Every single episode is a compelling human drama, usually with great characters (and actors), an interesting premise, a frightening "bear" of the week, and themes that are still relevant today. Some of my favorites include: yes, The Sixth Finger, The Man Who Was Never Born, Nightmare, The Zanti Misfits, The Bellero Shield, Specimen: Unknown, A Feasibility Study, Demon With a Glass Hand, and I, Robot.
This is one of my all-time favorite shows, and this is one of my favorite episodes. I watched this show like crazy when I was a boy. So many episodes scared the crap out of me.
The part of this episode at the end where Willam was reverted back to a caveman and where his face began to expand really scared me!
Almost all of the episodes of this sci-fi series blow away current shows. The creativity, the music, the format, the pacing, and Vic Perrin's great intro and outro pieces make this a super-classic of TV.
I think the fact it's produced in black and white adds to it's appeal as well , It came on at 11:00 pm followed by Don Kirshner's Rock Concert at mid - night
Cheers
This was the episode that got me my first major scar. Original airing (yeah, I'm old). Mom sends me to 'the basement,' the dark void from which no child returns, during the show to get freshly laundered and dried bedding for my siblings.
Of course, I know OL is on, so I stall. Standing behind the couch watching as David transforms.
Mom yells.
I take off for 'the void,' switching on ALL the lights as I go to keep the alien monsters at bay. I grab the bedding right out of the dryer, bundle them up so I have a free hand to hit the lights as I retreat and head at a run for the stairs (big old century home).
I yell "I'm coming!" but get stuck behind the couch watching just as, fully transformed, David comes from around the corner and we see him! Mom yells. I freak. Turn to run...
...and go forehead first into the edge of her Singer sewing machine console. WHAM! Right in the eyebrow! Blood everywhere! All over the sheets!
12 stitches. :D
Totally worth it.
Good story. At least you had a dryer in 1963. We hung clothes on a line in the basement.
@@geezermann7865 Peasants. :D
@@geezermann7865 Basement? We dreamed of having our own basement!. We had to hang our wet clothes in the backyard without any clothespins! -Thank's Monty Python-
The Outer Limits was a singularly special sci-fi series because of how many episodes were attempted to be pre-empted by local TV stations. They were all mostly great, but my favorite had to be the pilot "The Galaxy Being". It incorporated the usual contact with an alien being, but also the strange creepiness of radio technology back then, the usual amount of unnecessary destruction, and wrapped it all up with a philosophical message from beyond the stars. "You must explore; you must reach out..."
'What will you do?"
"Reduce transmission energy. Reduce man."
"You'll die."
"There is no death for me...end of transmission..."
The Outer Limits is the best science fiction show ever made and The Sixth Finger is great. I've been a fan since the early sixties and I'm now lucky enough to have the series on DVD. I liked how the lab assistant said "your ignorance makes me angry and ill", funny how correct that line is now in this present world enviroment. My all time favorite is "A Feasibility Study" from 1964, I was scared and intrigued at the same time. Thanks for all your work on the cool shows from the good ol' days, there's always something great to find out about these shows...my shows.
If _A Feasibility Study_ is the one I think it is, it was successfully remade for one of the reboots. With David McCallum.
@@julietfischer5056 I think I remember Steven King saying this was a series that scared the crap out of him. I think it helped to develop his writing.
@@julietfischer5056 "A Feasibility Study" was an amazing episode. I don't think the reboot of that episode held up to the original.
Yeah, I always got it backwards too, "your ignorance makes me angry and ill" seems better than the other way around, as in the episode. I was a nerd in High School in L.A. area in sixties, and we, my other nerd friends and I, would taut each other with that line, cuz well, we were nerds, and that's what nerd's do!! Thinking we were smarter than the other nerds! We were angry all the time too, cuz we had no girlfriends to get us off, and that made us very ill as well!! :D LOL
As a child, the show's opening alone scared the hell out of me! The episode that particularly scared me presented this scenario:
For those who remember when TV signals were received strictly via an antenna, there were times when you just had a screen full of static. When you were tuning in the signal you would get a ghost outline of human figures that would become more pronounced and turn into recognizable people as the picture cleared. In this episode, that ghostlike static figure stepped out of the TV screen and was walking around amongst us! I still get the chills just thing about it.
That's "The Galaxy Being," the first episode. It scared the crap out of me! I was 8, or maybe 7.
Your imagination filled in the details when the TV static blurred the picture beyond recognition. It might've done a better job, too!
"The Sixth Finger" is one of the more memorable episodes of The Outer Limits. 👽
Also, "The Demon With A Glass Hand," with Robert Culp. For some reason, I think that was written by Harlan Ellison, but I find no proof. I know he wrote the Star Trek story "The City On The Edge Of Forever."
@@johntiggleman4686 I remember Robert Culp in the Glass Hand story.
I saw it when I was 14 when it was first shown and vividly remember it! Supreme episode!
I was 9 years old and saw this episode when this was first shown on TV. I liked The Sixth Finger but my favorites (in no particular order) were 1) A Feasibility Study 2) Fun and Games and 3) A Second Chance. I still watch them. I also liked the Architects of Fear as we were one year removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis. And I really liked Nightmare.
The Outer Limits, especially the first season, used to evoke such fear and wonder in me. I used to love the Monster of the Week in the newspaper. Now, I enjoy what the stories say about the human condition.
@@sevenstarsofthedipper1047 Precisely. All drama, in the end, is human drama. The trappings of science fiction present another stage to enact it, but the story is compelling only to the degree you care about the characters and their dilemmas.
I thought that "Demon With A Glass Hand" had the best feel of being an actual dream the way it was shot, and how it progressed. Great episode!
"The Terminator" seems to have been copied off that episode, along with "Soldier" from The Outer Limits.
The Terminator also seems to be definitely copied from "In His Image" from The Twilight Zone, "The War Machines" story from Doctor Who, and the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project".
I was fortunate to have been around when this show first came out and in the early days of Television where stories were more character driven and despite the limited budgets the programming was engaging and entertaining. I can't relate to anything made today. I find it crude and lacking in story telling and morals. My favorite Outer Limits was a two part episode called The Inheritors. It always brings a tear to my eye despite the funky looking starship.
To this science-fiction loving kid, every episode was pure gold. "The Mutant" and "The Zanti Misfits" gave me nightmares like you wouldn't believe. Had a complete set of Outer Limits trading cards. Wish I still had those and my "Mars Attacks" cards. I believe you can get inexpensive reprints now, I think I'll do that.
"Soldier" with Michael Ansara and written by Harlan Ellison was probably my favorite.
I grew up on "Outer Limits" and "Twilight Zone." Might explain a lot about my later life . . hmm.
Yup. . .The Zanti Misfits definitely freaked me out. The episode with Patrick Oneal and the miniature planet under the glass. That dark batlike thing that came out of the planet was, for some reason, THE scariest thing I ever encountered on Outer Limits.
So many great episodes. My favorite was the one with Robert Culp as the android with the glass hand.
@@hubbsllc Definitely one of the best episodes.
I saw some Twilight Zones (old) as an adult and you talk about existential horror.... these shows had them. People today would not see these fearsome aspects and this was over 50 years ago.
OMG, the Zanti Misfits episode made me develop a phobia of bugs!
The people who post comments concerning "The Outer Limits" were all kids when it was first shown - like me - and inevitably remember being petrified with fear over one episode or another. For me, it was the one where Robert Culp was turned into a faux alien, and as he was dying in the lab at the end, he fell to the floor suddenly in front of his wife, who was able to recognize him because of how he touched her face with his finger. The alien make-up was scary, but it was more unsettling to me that he willingly and knowingly submitted to the surgery and permanent physical alterations while keeping the change secret from his wife.
That episode was "The Architects of Fear," and it's my most memorable episode too. I was only six when it first aired, and it scared the hell out of me.
I 've read that the network worried that the alien was "too frightening for young children," and that some affiliates actually blacked out the screen when the alien was being shown.
Scary as it was, I loved The Outer Limits when it first ran. But it wasn't until I saw it in syndication when I was older that I really started appreciating how good many of the stories and the acting were.
The small connection between this episode and "Architects" is that stuntman Janos Prohaska played the creature that Culp was turned into.
The love that guy had for his family combined with his self-sacrifice for the sake of world peace, brought tears to my eyes. Remember they first experimented on a monkey. Turning it into a alien looking creature drove it insane!
Yes, especially the Mutant and Zanti Misfits.
This is why I had posted previously that most of the episodes were actually love stories; The Architects of Fear is the perfect example, and the episode I was referring to, when I posted that.
This is one of best Outer Limits episodes. The story and acting are first rate.
"The whole town must be utterly destroyed. An example must be made."
Anytime I hear something stupid on the news, i walk up to a window, look out, and speak this line. Sometimes with coffee, sometimes with alcohol. It is mine to know which and when.
LOVED OUTER LIMITS and definitely this episode as a kid!!!
"Controlled Experiment" with Carrol O'Conner and Barry Morse, is the episode I always think of when someone mentions The Outer Limits.
I believe the only episode that could be called a comedy.
... great episode. For decades, I thought it was a Twilight Zone story.
If you live in the UK the Controlled Experiment episode is on this Friday at 8pm on Talking Pictures 👍
"Controlled Experiment" also starred Grace Lee Whitney who later went on to be yeoman Janice Rand on Star Trek.
A very attractive woman indeed.
@@VoightComp : Isn’t that the episode where Carroll O’Connor referred to George Washington’s picture on the one-dollar bill as an “old lady”?
"Your ignorance makes me ill and angry." Such a great line!!!! Definitely in my top five favorite OL episodes along with The Bellaro Shield, It Crawled Out of the Woodworks, Don't Open Till Doomsday and Production and Decay of Strange Particles (which scared the crap out of me when I was a kid) Runner up: O.B.I.T.
"The Machines are everywhere!"
"You mean O.B.I.T.?"
"No, I mean iPhones".
I'd say the top five is 1."The Man Who Was Never Born" also with Martin Landau from the Bellero Shield - both had heavily dramatic overtones y Landau. And Gerd Oswald directed film with David McCallum 2. "Forms of Things Unknown. And the two parter 3. "The Inheritors" and 4. The Mutant (with Warren Oates). 5. Second Chance (with Simon Oakland and Mimsy Farmer, Don Gordon) - great entertainment. Scary and in many cases, ominous.
@@SuperOmnicronsj44 There's so many good episode. FoTU is another one that creeped me out as a kid, and it was all atmosphere! Some more I need to add to my absolute favorites list: The Borderland and The Invisibles, which still gives me chills to this day 😃
@@maskedmarvyl4774 - Potentially Very Deadly Thinking, Plotting And Planning Machines, Which Are Always Watching Us, And Listening To Us . . . Ouch . . .
@@SuperOmnicronsj44 *all very good episodes*
Outer Limits was the finest sci-fi/horror series of all time. Bar none. Sorry, T. Zone.... And they still hold up even better than when they first aired, in my opinion...
That's like comparing apples and oranges! Outer limits was sci-fi where as Twilight Zone was more of the paranormal? T.Z. also went on to have a spin-off called The Night Gallery in the mid 70's and it held up to Rod Serlings standards of suspenseful entertainment...
@@rickymcginnis7300 Don't get me wrong. T. Zone was phenomenal! I watched both since 1964. I have come to prefer O.L. personally...
OL was produced weekly, props and everything quite a feat to be done in those times, impossible today.
I remember it in repeats because David McCallum, Man from Uncle was in it. Then a lifetime of love of sci-fi, horror was on.
My personal favorite was “Demon with a Glass Hand” with Robert Culp. But they are many others.
He was one of my fav actors
Demon with the glass hand 💯
@@joltjolt5060 Robert Culp later starred on NBC's"I Spy"with Bill Crosby.God bless his dear memory.
@@derlingerardclair6252 I believe in separating the performer from their work, since so many creative people are dicks. In the case of Bill Cosby it's difficult since he was the so much of the act. But I don't believe in burning books if the author was awful.
Is there another kind of favorite?
This was one of the best episodes of this series. I loved it.
Between twilight zone,outer limits and alfred Hitchcock series in the 60's wonder we didn't have nightmares. Scariest episode was Hitchcock. Show HD Edd Byrens as a prisoner make deal with prison cemetery caretaker to escape. He was to climb into coffin with corpse be buried and then caretaker would dig him up. All goes to plan till Edd keeps wondering why it's taken so long to dig him up. Edd lights match after match cursing where that old caretaker was. Of course the sheet comes off body...it's the caretaker himself dead in coffin with him
What's the rest???
WOW! What a horrible way to die! I loved the Alfred Hitchcock series.
This episode was one of my favorites of this series, I remember seeing the TV trailers for the first Episode "The Galaxy Being" staring Cliff Robertson and looked forward to seeing it. When it premiered I was absolutely enthralled with the intro and the control voice - but still remember how terrified I was when I saw the whole episode (I was 9 hears old). Among my favorites was "O.B.I.T", "The Inheritors", "Feasibility Study", "Second Chance, and "The Man Who Never Was Born".
This is my favorite episode of Outer Limits. Bar none.. hands down. The line "Your ignorance makes me ill and angry" has always stuck with me and I have actually used it. Thank you for bringing this to me today. 🌹
The whole town must be destroyed. An example must be made.
It's a great line and it begs to be used in many modern situations.
Perfect line for having truck with the homo sapiens lineage, the vast majority of our species. Let me know when the humans arrive.
I love that line too! Cracks me up! I try to use it also. Somebody pointed out we have practically 24/7 opportunities to use it these days.
I felt that way when I looked at the comments to my posts back when I used to have a Twitter account. life is so much more pleasant without Twitter. I hope Elon Musk sells his stock, tanks the company and wipes it from the face of the Earth!
Yes this was an outstanding episode. The script and dialogue was excellent. Too many favorites to list, but Architects of Fear, A Feasibility Study and Nightmare are some favorites.
McCallum was also in the last episode of the first season with Sir Cedric Hardwick in a beautiful piece of dark, Gothic fantasy. This was also a pilot for a series unsold. Both McCallum episodes are excellent.
From, what I recall, it was the first episode of the second season.
David was also in the mid`90's remake of the episode, "Feasibility Study".
@@RedVynil The OP is correct, last episode of the 1st season. "The Forms of Things Unknown" script borrows unashamedly from the film "Diabolique" (1955).
The Forms of Things Unknown was always my personal favorite episode. I thought it had a dark poetry to it.
Iliya Kuriakin. The Man from UNCLE
"The Architects of Fear" was my favorite O.L. Episode.
Yes, one of my favorites. Others are: "The Architects of Fear", "Demon with a Glass Hand", "Corpus Earthling", "O.B.I.T.", "Nightmare", "The Belero Shield", and "The Forms of Things Unknown".
fun +games is ok.
yes those are great. whats the one with vera miles called. its strange+cool.
you are directly on target,, but you missed the Zanti Misfits, the production and decay of strange particles, the Mutant, and the special one
Don't forget "Soldier"
And, "The Zanti Misfits".
One of best episodes of The Outer Limits. My fav: "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork". The energy-monster was completely original then, and still today.
Thats the episode I always remember.
It's also one of my favorites. One thing that's interesting is how the narrative subtly jumps from the older brother to the younger brother and his new girlfriend and then to the detective.
The Energy Monster was the chaos factor in Forbidden Planet 7 or 8 years earlier. Jonny Quest also had The Invisible Monster made of energy from an experiment in 1964.
There was a UK movie with an energy monster in the very early 60s....and The Avengers had one in the Rigg years.
Many people don't know that the detective in this episode was none other than Ed Asner, who would go on to play Lou Grant in the Mary Tyler Moore show!!!! 👍
Yup. I never missed the Outer Limits and yes, this is an extraordinary episode. Art Garfunkel. Y'all funny.
So remember this show from my childhood. Really great series.
would of been great to grow up in those days
@@Mary...22-u9j when I look back on it now, it really was. We had a good time we could go out and play we could be away from the house for hours on end and your parents never worried about you. People actually got along much better then than they do now in spite of everything
I loved that show at age 11 in 1963. For some reason It was shown at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. I would get up super early to watch it and other Sci-Fi shows. Now all the Sci-Fi /Horror shows are just blood and guts ,the gorier the better they think. THESE made you think and imagine.
The big problem is that it is difficult to do noir _except_ in black & white.
Censorship can be both blessing and curse. When you can't shove things into people's faces, you have to hint and suggest and use creativity. No hiding plot holes behind a torrent of blood and guts. (In his commentary to _Hellraiser,_ Clive Barker said that the censors' suggestions made certain scenes _more_ effective. I doubt that was the intent, but here's to happy accidents.)
@@josepherhardt164- It's heavily associated with black & white filmmaking, which the best directors used to full advantage. By the time color became common, noir as a genre was not as popular. Nowadays, few seem to know how to use color at all, which is why the same few overall hues are used and the no-talent mistake creative uses of color for something they _should_ do. Can you imagine _Lawrence of Arabia_ made today? It would look as though they put a yellow filter over every camera lens.
@@julietfischer5056 Speaking of filters over camera lenses, have you ever seen _The Angry Red Planet_ ? It's amazing what you can do in nine days with $200,000 (reputedly!) . :) I also think this 1959 masterpiece (cough) is here on TH-cam.
There have been a few series over the years with vague similarities, twilight zone, quantum leap, x-files, black mirror, etc. Early HG Wells films were all cautionary tales and moral choice.
Sadly, David recently died. I've always enjoyed his work and he was exceptional in this episode.
Goodnight Illya.
They should have won an Emmy for the writing in this episode. This and Zanti Misfits are my favorites.
Oh my god, the Zanti Misfits...
Took years to get over that episode.
@@RSTI191 Yep, ants with faces freaked me out and I hid under my covers!!!
@@matthewmehegan3475
They'll do that to you..
@@RSTI191 Loved the Zanti Misfits. I was an adult the first time I saw it.
@@conniechastain
Much scarier when you're a kid.
=)
This was first show that I saw David McCallam in.
Fun fact about Janos Prohaska's Horta costume:
It's a re-use of his "Mikey the Microbe" costume from the Outer Limits episode "The Probe."
Happy to say I saw the costume in person when meeting Forrest J. Ackerman in the late 90s. He had it in his home, along with about a million other artifacts from film and TV.
You did a great review. For me probably my favourite from the original series was, “The Inheritors” part one & part two. It showed the pettiness of mankind sometimes. And perhaps the super goodness of an Alien Race we have not met yet.
Absolutely, this and the Robert Culp episodes are my favorites.
My fav actor
@@joltjolt5060 Robert Culp in ANYTHING!!
Culp was one of my favorite actors, who had a few good roles in movies, but seemed doomed to be a TV-type of actor...I am biased here, as he was a University of Washington graduate--my school too!
I was in High School then and loved the show. I have a complete Dvd set of it as well as "The Twilight Zone".
i have those also and i have tales from darkside boxset. and thriller.
The “ Bear” approach worked in my case. I watched EVERY episode and loved the complete series.💝✌🏼♾
Yes, one of my favorite episodes! I always thought that big cranium made him look like Art Garfunkel :)
thats a good 1. lmao
I thought they looked like the Aliens from Talos IV in Star Trek.
One of my favorites too. I still do watch it from time to time. (I have all the episodes Mp4)
@@GiftSparks
Yes, the later on evolution, definitely!
🤣🤣🤣
I recall watching this series in 1980 in the Uk. I loved this American show. As a 12 year old, I was captivated!
David himself has stated in THE OUTER LIMITS COMPANION that he doesn't play the piano at all bu he taught himself to fake it.
But he does play the oboe - lots harder than piano. Also, both his parents were musicians, so he would have known a lot more than the average actor. His parents were worried about his ability to make a living when he switched from being a musician to being an actor.
Perhaps he meant that he didn't play the piano previous to this episode. But taught himself to play for this episode for the sake of authenticity. And perhaps he went on to be proficient.
Actually David`s father was an accomplished viola player in an orchestra. One night he asked Jimmy Page if he wanted to try a viola bow on his guitar. Page liked it so much he began using in some of his sets and then used it later on in Led Zep.
This was a great episode. Love 50s and 60s sci-fi
"The Zanti Misfits" was the one that scared the heck out of me.
"Soldier", "Do Not Open Til Doomsday" and "The Bellero Sheild" also stand out as personal favs for me
those are all great. the galaxy being is good. a study in feasibility freeked me out one night.
@Uluxian--Agreed on the Zanti Misfits. Just like Twilight Zone, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet with Wm Shatner.
Every episode of the Outer Limits used to scare the crap out of me as a kid. I'd start trembling as soon as the "control voice" did the opening lines. It would take all week for me to get over the episode, and I'd come back for more the next week!
"Do Not Open Till Doomsday" was creepy , but "The Architects of Fear" really bothered me. The horific results of the transformation and the poor guy's wife when she meets the "alien" stuck with me for years.
Liked all those episodes, especially Soldier and Zanti Misfits.
McCallum was also in the episode "Forms of Things Unknown" which is a great episode and one of my favorites. Also probably one of the weirdest Outer Limits episodes.
Along with "The Man Who Was Never Born", this is my favorite OL episode.
David MaCallum and Martin Landau, 2 outstanding actors.
Yes - GREAT ONE!!!! One of my favorites too!
Robert Culp was in 3.
1. The Monster with a Glass Hand
2. Architects of Fear
3. Corpus Earthling
The only actor to do this. All episodes were great
@@55Quirll I would have loved to discuss "Demon With a Glass Hand" with Robert Culp," given that we now have flash drives that are analogous to the fingers of the hand, but now he is playing engagements far from here. Next in line for discussion would be Harlan Ellison, who wrote that story, but he passed away not long ago.
@@wdd3141 I agree, that episode was very far ahead of it's time in items we take for granted today. The special effects may have been cheesey but I loved the episode.
"Demon with a Glass Hand" was also one of my favorites, written by Harlan Ellison. I think that episode could be updated to today's standard as would be "the 6th finger" I did watch this version modernized by the reboot of the Outer Limits, but this version tapped into a more visceral fear of how we could see ourselves in the future without community, how would such an evolve person ever exist and feel belonging?
That was one of my favorites, and keeper of the purple twilight or something like that. Didn't know about the jellyfish thing that sounds very interesting spectacular research
Outer Limits and Twilight Zone have never been surpassed in imagination, innovation and quality.
Great !
I remember the gum and trading cards when i was just a kid then.
This one creeped me out.
I never missed Outer Limits; it was a TV program way ahead of its time. This episode was one of my favorites, along with the Robert Culp episode where his character is a robot who must wait for a future date 200 years away, as he has the entire population of future Earth converted to a digital signal on a wire in his robot hand. Thanks for sharing this.
That Robert Culp one is "Demon With A Glass Hand" and is probably my favorite ever...
Robert Culp and Harlan Ellison wanted to make "Demon with a Glass Hand" into a feature, with Mr. Culp directing, but they could never find the financing. It was indeed a superior episode.
"Demon...." is a great episode. Top notch. Somebody botched the calculations for half lives of the radioactive plague used to destroy the Kyban. 99 year half life is not 200 years from total decay : 50% first 99 years, 50% of THAT second 99 years (now 75% decay 25% active) third 99 years, 87-1/2, 12-1/2 ... you get it. So in addition to the 1000 year delay, Trent (Culp) must wait another 700 years for activity under 2%. Even that may be fatal to all, we don't know...
The episode that really scared me was "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork." My dad had a shop vacuum just like the one in the episode. It was months before I would go anywhere near that thing again. (Hey, I was eight years old.)
Haha! I remember that one, too!
I only know the names of a couple episodes of all the shows I use to watch, and this is one of them.
And Ed Asner played the detective in this episode and would go on to fame as Lou Grant in the Mary Tyler Moore show
Thanks for watching! Click this link to subscribe: bit.ly/2WLVf10
When I was kid, this show and the Twilight Zone would put the scare into me. The Outer Limits opening monologue really told me some scary shit was in store! Thanks for sharing.
I loved both. Twilight Zone interspersed some scarier episodes with many more light-hearted and moralistic episodes, while Outer Limits was relentlessly scary. If I had to compare Twilight Zone to the Outer Limits, I'd say it's like comparing the milder Beatles to forever bad-boy Rolling Stones.
For me it was Night Gallery which still gives me nightmares to this day lol
That opening was great. "There is nothing wrong with your Television set..."
To this day, I will only watch either of them with a "Louisville Slugger" within arms reach! And I'm in my 60s!!
Anyone remember the show WAY OUT? Roald Dahl was host. The show didn’t last long just a few episodes. But it was shot on tape rather than film. That made it even more frightening.
I loved the Outer Limits as a kid. My parents would only let me watch it begrudgingly - as there was only 1 TV in the house (a 19" B&W Zenith) and they didn't always want to watch it themselves. Also, I was prone to nightmares and sleepwalking in those days, and they didn't want to have to deal with me waking up and screaming in the middle of the night. But I could rarely understand The Twilight Zone in those days - I think it required a more mature mind. The Outer Limits was a more "in-your-face" monster show which was definitely scarier. My favorite episode was the one where there were aliens that looked like rocks, but could morph into killer molten lava things :) For some reason that really resonated with my grammar school brain. Thanks for this episode. I appreciate your work.
Sadly, David McCallum died yesterday at age 90. He was a gifted man whose intelligence always shined through in roles he played.
I think this may be my favorite Outer Limits episode. It gives hope that perhaps sometime in the future, humans may outgrow their animal impulses and become compassionate, wise beings - just as Willem became at his most advanced stage.
One can only hope our species and the planet, last long enough for this to happen.
I really wish Science-Fiction writers would learn how evolution actually works. If his evolution had really been "accelerated" then he would have evolved to fit into his environment, meaning that little room... not growing more intelligent and psychic. Evolution doesn't mean improvement, it just means adaptation to better fit habitat. But most importantly: _individuals cannot evolve._ That is something that far too many sci-fi writers never seem to understand.
I know, it rather bugs me, too. But without that massive leap of illogic, we wouldn't have this pretty damn good OL episode.
The one episode that freaked me out .. and became my favorite also.. is the Zanti Misfits episode. I got used to how bizarre they looked but the high pitch voice that talked in english was offset with the harsh insect buzzing noises they made as they crawled around, that still kinda haunts me as an adult.
Bruce Dern in that one? Probably the most memorable one for me as well. ALL the Outer Limits episodes were nothing short of magnificent!
@@sunfish340 yeah he is. I had to look it up online. I don't remember the names of any of the actors offhand.
@@Wario7793 Olive Deering was the lady.
Yeah that episode freaked me out, especially that scene where the misfits are crawling all over the walls and one guy is screaming.....aaahhhhh get 'em off me....aaaahhhhh
The Zanti Misfits scared the living daylights out of me when I was seven. I used to turn the dial when "the bear"(i.e. monster) would make its first appearance.
.As I got older, I used to watch full episodes and ask myself: what did the alien/monster/mutant symbolize? What was the social issue being commented upon in the story? A minimum of special effects and first-class scripts were what kept this series going.
I have a distinct memory of watching one of these shows, probably Outer Limits or Twilight Zone, in the late 1960s in reruns that had a sequence where a man was run through accelerated evolution by a machine and at one stage was left as a jellyfish, before being brought back to an ordinary man again. That image of a lump of jelly sitting inside the chamber of the machine is quite distinct. I remember it well. Which means that there is a possibility that this episode (The Sixth Finger) was released with two different endings, or that a very similar episode of another show (basically a rip-off) was made and broadcast at some point.
Does anyone else remember such an episode?
While this was a good episode... my favorite remains the Demon with the Glass Hand... in Season 2.
That episode seems to have been an Inspiration for the Terminator.
@@darkwolf-22 - Really? I always thought The Man Who Was Never Born was pretty much The Terminator (Martin Landau goes back in time to kill the man who pretty much destroyed the Earth).
That was terrific.
Loved the Outer Limits when I was a kid. One of my favorites was when the X-15 went faster than time and the pilot gets out to a worlds that appears frozen in time.
I love The Outer Limits, and I definitely love this episode in particular.
As a published writer myself, my favorite has always been Demon with the glass hand, especially since I knew Harlan Ellison. C. C. Clingan.
I love your channel. Its great to look back to rhe days of quality television.
I was too young to watch it when it first aired here in Australia. By the time I was, in the late 60s it had disappeared from the air waves. In the late 70 and early 80s a few smaller cinemas would have Saturday afternoon showing a couple of episodes back to back. And they always sold out for some reason. It wasn't until the DVDs were released that I got to see both seasons. Lot's of great episodes like "The Demon With the glass Hand"; but my favourite would be its only 2 parter, "The Inheritors".
I vividly remember this excellent episode, particularly Stefano's addition, when McCallum rips through a Bach piece, and then says, "These hands have never before touched the keys of a piano."
I once met Cliff Robertson and we talked for about half an hour, and I mentioned "Galaxy Being," which he remembered warmly.
My favorite Outer Limits of all time though is Robert Culp in "The Demon With the Glass Hand." That was an outstanding screenplay.
Cliff Robertson was great in "Charly," too, another "sped-up mental evolution" story with a "don't play God" moral.
@@KutWrite Hey, you're right, there is a parallel between those two screenplays, isn't there? As you probably know, "Charly" was based on a beautiful short story, "Flowers For Algernon."
Cliff Robertson was living example of the old saying, "The bigger they are, the nicer they are." It was neat running into him because I had worked in the theater biz-25 years as a projectionist, etc.,-and we had a fascinating conversation I won't bore you with, but I'd run into him in La Jolla, where I lived then, and where he'd grown up. He was in the process of selling his home in town. I said we locals wished he would stick around, and he told me, "you know, Joe, I used to deliver papers to that house when I was a kid."
That is pure Cliff Robertson right there.
@@TheRealDrJoey Yes. I have friends in LaJolla and heard nice stories about Cliff. I accidentally got onto the drive of his hilltop house. Got to the gate and had trouble turning my cafe-racer motorcycle around & tipped it over. First and only scratches on that beautiful fairing :((( . But I never sighted Cliff myself.
@@KutWrite He was in 70-some pictures, and ALL the TV work he did was just superlative.
He told me a little about Natalie Wood dying toward the end of production on "Brainstorm," and I kidded him about his character in "Way of the Wind," and asked him if that was supposed to be Ted Turner in his dotage. I got a great laugh out of Cliff Robertson with that, and then he said, "I know Ted Turner, and he's a lot crazier than that character." Then he actually took the time to tell me a cool anecdote about how the director came to him the day of shooting and asked him if he wouldn't mind nuancing the character, and learning some lines he had written the night before.
"I don't care what I'm supposed to say!" he tells me, " They're paying me to be there, right?"
He was a lovely guy, from a time gone by now, sad to say.
But it's nice thinking that the film record will endure.
@@TheRealDrJoey I like his role in "Three Days of the Condor." Evil yet sympathetic, or at least understanding.
I never knew there was a person in a Horta suit. Enjoyed this series as it aired.
Watched Outer Limits and never got tired of the sound FX. Totally molded my imagination along with Twilight Zone, Thriller, One step beyond, Chiller and many others. Outer Limits was the most Sci Fi, actually gave me dreams.
I grew up with all the shows you mentioned, Including Star Trek. They are what shaped my appreciation for Science Fiction. I even became a huge science fiction book reader. To this day, Science Fiction, is my preference for books, movies and TV. I think I was drawn to the genre -- and still am -- because it is fiction, and not limited to reality. You can take the story in any direction and your only limit is your imagination.
@@reesaserik3759 The same with me, I got into the classic sci fi books, Stranger in a Strange Land, 1984, The Foundation Trilogy, Brave New World, Dune, Slaughter House 5. The Man who was never Born is another great episode on Outer Limits. I don't read Sci Books so much anymore but I'm richer for reading those I mentioned.
@@recycology5468 Reading is a habit that sometimes gets lost as you develop new habits. There is only so much time in a day and there are so many things now to draw our attention. When I was young, no cell phones, no computers, no games -- video or other electronic type. Games were board games, deck of cards, dice, and such. You only had 3 channels on the TV -- if you were lucky to have three, and the TV went off the air after midnight. National Anthem played, then the station emblem showed, then static until morning. So if you were a night owl and stayed up -- you read while everyone else slept. As an adult I do not read as much either because my attentions are divided between arts and crafts. Needlework; sewing; drawing/painting; woodworking; carving; resin casting. Yep, only so much time in a day. Those books you read, when younger, will stay with you for the rest of your life. Some people never read any books at any age. They have no idea what they have missed. Good day to you and I hope you are happy.
The Outer Limits was the greatest science fiction series ever produced. Many people will instantly associate it with The Twilight Zone, but it wasn't. While I liked The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits was in a class by itself. It combined wonderful, imaginative plots with ambient music to create the ultimate experience on the small screen. The Sixth Finger, Nightmare, The Bellero Shield, The Galaxy Being, The Hundred Days of the Dragon, The Man Who Was Never Born, Demon with a Glass Hand, The Borderland, Second Chance, and The Inheritors were my favorite episodes. I can remember reruns on Saturday afternoons in the 1960's when I was young, and I have been a fan ever since. The Outer Limits: Official Companion is a must read for any fan of the series.
Yes, this was one of my favorites along with the Mutant and Architecs of Fear.